Poor navigation, monitoring led to 2010 vessel grounding: TSB

Oil tanker left Baker Lake in Oct. 2012 en route to Newfoundland

The Nanny is one of two oil tankers that delivers fuel to Baker Lake. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE TSB)

The Transportation Safety Board says the 2010 grounding of a fuel tanker was due to poor monitoring of the ship’s navigation, which allowed to travel on an uncharted route.

The TSB released its final marine investigation Feb. 4 into the grounding of the tanker Nanny in the Chesterfield Narrows outside of Baker Lake.

The oil tanker left Baker Lake Oct. 25, 2012 en route to Newfoundland and Labrador, anchoring just north of the Chesterfield Narrows to wait for high tide.

The Nanny was first required to continue slightly off course in order to pass another tanker. But instead of returning to its charted route once clear of the other tanker, the nanny continued on a roughly parallel course about 0.12 nautical miles away.

That deviation continued as the tanker turned into Chesterfield Narrows, where the Nanny ran aground on a shoal.

In its report, the TSB said the route deviation was not discussed by the vessel’s bridge team, which did not share any navigational information during the trip.

“Due to insufficient monitoring of the vessel’s navigation and ineffective bridge resource management, the bridge team was unaware of the extent to which the vessel was off the charted course as it entered the narrows,” said the report.

Two days after the Nanny ran aground, strong winds pushed the vessel off the shoal and it continued on to St. John’s, Newfoundland for repairs. No injuries or pollution were reported.

Since the incident, the Nanny’s operator, the Woodward Group of Labrador, has created a confined waters policy with procedures to mitigate the risks of entering and sailing through narrow waterways.

The operator also implemented voyage data recorder training to ensure that data can be preserved after any accidents.

The same vessel ran aground near Gjoa Haven in 2010.

Here's a map of the Nanny's actual route and its charted route. (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE TSB)